Electricity banished shadows—but shadows are “shades,” souls, the souls of light itself. Even divine light, when it loses its organic and secret darkness, becomes a form of pollution. In prison cells electric lights are never doused; light becomes oppression and source of disease.
– Peter Lamborn Wilson
It seems that some Toronto taggers are no longer content to scrawl their own names on blank concrete canvases around the city and are trying instead to make more of a cultural statement. Last year, references to composer Gustav Mahler popped up in several places around town. This year, a more cryptic stencil has appeared on the Humber Bay Arch Bridge, boldly proclaiming “ISBN 486-28495-6″ for all to see and ponder. This International Standard Book Number turns out to be a paperback edition of Henry David Thoreau’s Walden; Or, Life in the Woods.
– Val Dodge
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[John Downer] fixed webcams to four elephants. One carried a “trunk-cam” - a device resembling a huge log concealing a camera which could be held in its trunk and dangled close to the ground.
Another had a “tusk-cam” hooked over its tusk. The elephants moved so steadily that the images are pin-sharp. Other log-cams were left on the forest floor.
– Olinka Koster and Nigel Blundell
Whales are ‘cheetahs of the deep’
Super-fast pilot whales have been observed sprinting after prey, likely to include giant squid.
The rapid pursuit has brought comparisons with the fleet-footed land predator, the cheetah.
The cetaceans even use the same, highly specialised hunting strategy that cheetahs use, scientists report in the Journal of Animal Ecology.
– Matt Walker
The Commercialization of Microfinance: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
Coleman kicked off the session with brief introductions and quickly segued into the topic at hand – the good, bad and ugly of microfinance. She stated – without dissent – that microfinance now finds itself at an inflection point. On the one hand, there have been calls for microfinance not to profit off the backs of the poor, notably in the New York Times’ coverage of Compartamos’ IPO. On the other hand, those who know microfinance realize that it can’t scale – from 100 million clients today to its potential market of 4 billion – without the capital markets, and the formality capital markets require.
– Rob Katz
Milliways: Infocom’s Unreleased Sequel to Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
From an anonymous source close to the company, I’ve found myself in possession of the “Infocom Drive” — a complete backup of Infocom’s shared network drive from 1989. This is one of the most amazing archives I’ve ever seen, a treasure chest documenting the rise and fall of the legendary interactive fiction game company. Among the assets included: design documents, email archives, employee phone numbers, sales figures, internal meeting notes, corporate newsletters, and the source code and game files for every released and unreleased game Infocom made.
For obvious reasons, I can’t share the whole Infocom Drive. But I have to share some of the best parts. It’s just too good.
So let’s start with the most notorious — Milliways: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, the unreleased sequel to Infocom’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. For the first time, here’s the full story: with never-before-seen design documents, internal emails, and two playable prototypes. Sit back, this might take a while.
Researchers find uses for old coffee
Italian researchers say the leftover dregs from the estimated 70 million cups of coffee that are made daily in Italy could be used to fuel stoves and boilers.
The researchers said the coffee dregs can be converted into a “clean” organic fuel for the appliances, ANSA reported Friday.
Oh yay, Dilbert now has an RSS feed with the embedded strips.
There is no greater gift to an insecure leader that quite matches a vague enemy who can be used to whip up fear and hatred among the population.
– Paul Rusesabagina
